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Snowden
wants asylum in Russia, ready to meet condition not to damage US
NSA
leaker & former CIA employee Edward Snowden has asked for
political asylum in Russia, saying he could not fly to Latin America,
according to human rights activists who met the whistleblower at
Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
RT,
12 July, 2013
When
asked if the NSA leaker has any more revelations, Lokshina responded:
“He says that his job is done.”
Human
Rights Watch deputy director Tanya Lokshina (C) speaks to journalists
after arriving at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow July 12, 2013
(Reuters / Tatyana Makeyeva)
Snowden
asked the human rights activists to petition the US and European
states not to interfere with his asylum process, she said. The former
NSA contractor also asked to intervene with President Putin on his
behalf, Lokshina added.
Snowden
said he is ready to ask Russia for political asylum and that he “does
not intend to harm the US,” according to Russian State Duma MP
Vyacheslav Nikonov.
“No
actions I take or plan are meant to harm the US... I want the US to
succeed,” Snowden said.
Snowden
said he does not rule out moving to live in a Latin American country.
However, the recent incident in which the Bolivian President Evo
Morales’ plane was grounded in Austria on suspicion that the NSA
leaker was on board discourages Snowden from going there now.
“First,
he said that he was dissatisfied with European countries after the
Bolivian president’s plane was inspected. He wants to seek
political asylum, at least temporary shelter, in Russia. But his
further actions are unclear,” Nikitin said.
According
to human rights lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, the request for political
asylum has already been written by Snowden. Kucherena said he will
provide legal support for the former NSA contractor seeking asylum.
The
Russian authorities should be able to decide on Snowden’s asylum
request in two to three weeks’ time, he added.
(L-R)
Lawyers Genry Reznik and Anatoly Kucherena, the head of the
Soprotivlenie human-rights movement, Olga Kostina, Russia's Human
Rights Ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, speak with journalists inside the
terminal F of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, on July 12, 2013 (AFP
Photo / Kirill Kudryavtsev)
Meanwhile,
Russia’s presidential human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin
suggested that it would be better for Snowden to ask the UN or the
ICRC for refugee status instead of seeking asylum in Russia. That way
it won’t harm Russian-American relations, he added.
The
US Embassy called several rights activists before their meeting with
Snowden, asking to deliver the official American stance on his
actions.
“It
is true that I received a call from the American Embassy in the name
of [US Ambassador to Russia Michael] McFaul, in which I was asked to
deliver to Snowden the US official stand, which says he is not
considered a rights activist, that he broke the law and therefore
must be made accountable,” Lokshina confirmed to RIA Novosti.
However,
Washington denied that US diplomats asked Human Rights Watch to
deliver a message to Snowden.
“We
simply explained our position on Snowden to a representative of Human
Rights Watch,” a source at the US Department of State told
Interfax.
Thirteen
Russian and international human rights advocates and lawyers have
gathered at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport for a meeting with Snowden.
The whistleblower said the living conditions were fine at the airport
and he felt safe there, but he knows he can't stay there forever,
according to Lokshina.
Rights
advocates who received letters from Snowden and agreed to come to the
meeting included representatives of Amnesty International,
Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and other
organizations, as well as well-known Russian lawyers.
The
meeting started behind closed doors in an undisclosed area of
Sheremetyevo’s Terminal F.
Meanwhile,
several hundred journalists have surrounded a gray ‘staff only’
door guarded by airport security, awaiting for comments from the
meeting participants.
The
Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying the
Kremlin has not yet received any formal asylum request from Snowden.
The conditions for his staying in Russia remain the same as voiced by
Vladimir Putin earlier, he added.
Should
Snowden apply for asylum, Russia will consider his request, Peskov
said.
Russia
was one of over twenty countries to which Snowden sent asylum request
according to Wikileaks. President Vladimir Putin said then Snowden
may stay in Russia, if he wants to, but only if he stops activities
aimed against the United States.
“There
is one condition if he wants to remain here: he must stop his work
aimed at damaging our American partners. As odd as it may sound from
me,” Putin told a media conference in Moscow.
In
Putin’s opinion, Snowden considers himself “a fighter for human
rights” and it seems unlikely that he is going to stop leaking
American secret data.
However,
Russia is not going to extradite Snowden, the president underlined.
“Russia
has never extradited anyone and is not going to do so. Same as no one
has ever been extradited to Russia,” Putin stated.
“Snowden,
by sincere conviction or for some other reason, considers himself to
be a human rights activist, a fighter for the ideals of democracy and
human freedom. Russian human rights activists and organizations, as
well as their colleagues abroad acknowledge this. For this reason,
extraditing Snowden to a country like the US where capital punishment
is enforced is impossible,” Peskov explained to press
'My
asylee status now formal': Snowden declares 'acceptance' of all
offers of asylum
Edward
Snowden says his asylum status is now official as he accepts all
offers made to him. "No state has a basis by which to limit or
interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum," he said in the
statement published by WikiLeaks
RT,
12
July, 2013
.
“I
announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or
asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the
future,” Snowden stated on Friday during his meeting with rights
activists and lawyers at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
“With,
for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President
Maduro, my asylee status is now formal,” his address reads.
Snowden
also said that he is going to seek asylum in Russia, since he cannot
fly to Latin America yet. The whistleblower is set to submit his bid
on Friday and hopes “it will be accepted favorably.”
“I
ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from
the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well
as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede
to law and my legal travel is permitted,” he told the meeting,
attended by some 13 representatives of rights organizations.
The
former CIA employee is wanted in the US on charges of espionage after
revealing secret NSA surveillance programs and could face the death
penalty in his home country. He fled American soil for Hong Kong in
May and then flew to Moscow, where he has been stuck at the airport
transit zone for almost three weeks.
Addressing
rights activists, he recalled that only a short while ago he had
family, comfortable live and a home in paradise.
“I
also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and
read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That
is the power to change people’s fates,” Snowden stated, adding
that such power is also a serious violation of the law.
“The
4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes
and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance,”
the whistleblower pointed out.
“While
the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government
argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to
see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply
corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to
be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret
law,” Snowden believes.
The
30-year-old explained what was behind his decision to leak the secret
NSA spying programs. He said he did what he believed to be right and
“began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing.” Snowden underlined
that he did not seek to enrich himself, or to sell American secrets.
“I
took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be
discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for
justice,” Snowden said, adding that he does not regret his
decision.
The
US has launched a persecution campaign in response, “threatening
with sanctions” countries who stand up for Snowden’s rights. The
American government has “even taken the unprecedented step of
ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s
plane in search of a political refugee,” he said, referring to
Bolivian aircraft incident.
“I
have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political
expression,” the whistleblower added.
Snowden
expressed his gratitude to countries that offered him asylum and
support, despite “historically disproportionate aggression” by
the US.
So
far, three countries in Latin America – Venezuela, Bolivia and
Nicaragua – said they could offer Asylum to the American
whistleblower.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin had earlier stated that Moscow would grant
him asylum if he stopped activities aimed at harming “our American
partners.”
Snowden
agreed to Moscow’s condition on Friday, according to Russian
lawmaker Vyacheslav Nikonov, who took part in the Moscow meeting with
the former CIA employee.
“He
said he is aware of that condition and it would be easy for him to
accept it. He is not going to harm the US because he is a patriot of
his country,” Nikonov told journalists after the gathering.
When
asked whether Snowden had more revelations up his sleeve, Tatyana
Lokshina of Human Rights Watch replied, “He says that his job is
done.”
Moscow
could decide to grant political asylum to Snowden within two to three
weeks, lawyer and Public Chamber member Anatoly Kucherena said.
And for the predictable response from Washington -
White
House: Snowden must be returned to US & face charges
Whistleblowing
website Wikileaks has released Edward Snowden's statement to human
rights groups in Moscow. In it the former NSA contractor asks for
assistance in getting asylum in Russia until he can legally travel to
Latin America. The White House said Friday that Russia granting
political asylum to Edward Snowden would be on par with providing the
National Security Agency leaker with a "propaganda platform"
to further harm the United States.
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